Automatic rate regulator for timepieces



A May 30, 1961 J. RABINOW 2,985,997

AUTOMATIC RATE REGULATOR FOR TIMEPIECES Original Filed Dec. 14, 1954 ]NV ENTOR. k/CZ cob Rab #vovv BY Moi/M United States Patent 0.

AUTOMATIC RATE REGULATOR FOR TIMEPIECES Jacob Rabinow, 1603 Drexel St., Takoma Park, Md.

Continuation of application Ser. No. 475,046, Dec. 14, 1954. This application Apr. 10, 1956, Ser. No. 577,392

14 Claims. (Cl. 58-109) This invention relates to the automatic regulation of timepieces and has for its primary object the provision for simple and efficient means for automatically regulating the timepiece solely by the act of setting the hand to the correct time without any other adjustment or the necessity for an act of judgment by the user.

My prior U.S. patent, No. 2,542,439, describes an automatic timepiece regulation in which a fixed maximum correction is provided by the act of setting the hands of the timepiece. The present invention has this general feature also, but provides a much simpler and less expensive mechanism for accomplishing the above result.

It is a major object of the present invention to provide an automatic regulator controlled by the setting of the hands of the timepiece, in which no further operation than such setting is required by the operator. Still another object is to provide means in an automatic regulator permitting only a maximum small change in rate regulation each time the hands are set. Still another object is the provision of an automatic regulator of the above type, of exceedingly simple and inexpensive construction, and having very few additional parts to be added to the conventional timepiece mechanism.

According to the invention, a rotatable element is brought into engagement with the hand-setting mechanism of the timepiece so that as the hands are set, the rotatable element is rotated in one direction or the other a small amount, until it engages a stop which prevents further motion. Thereafter further motion of the hands merely causes frictional sliding with the rotatable element but no further motion thereof. When the stem of the timepiece is pushed back from the hand-setting position into the normal running position, the rotatable element is reset automatically to its initial position.

The specific nature of my invention, as well as other objects and advantages thereof, will clearly appear from a description of a preferred embodiment as shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan or face view of a timepiece with the dial broken away, and the stem partly in section;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detail plan view of the regulating lever and friction element carried thereby;

Fig. 4 is a detail plan view of a modified form of the invention in normal running position; and

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the modification of Fig. 4 in an extreme setting position.

Referring to the figures, the timepiece 2 is represented as of the type having a stem 4 which is pulled out, i.e., to the left in Fig. 2, when the hands are to be set. Only the minute hand 6 is shown, the customary hour hand being omitted as it is not necessary to this disclosure. In the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the stem is pushed inward and the timepiece is running normally. The motor and gear portion of the clockwork are of any conventional design and are carried in casing 8 from which the minute shaft 10 protrudes, which carries the minute hand for one full rotation each hour. Shaft 12 also protrudes from the casing and is fixed to the customary rate regulating mechanism 13 so that when this shaft is turned in one direction, the rotation rate of the time shaft 10 is speeded up, and when it is turned in the other direction the rotation rate of time shaft 10 is slowed down. Fixed to regulator shaft 12 is a gear sector 14. The particular details of the rate regulating mechanism shown are conventional and form no part of the present invention.

Regulator lever 18 is pivotally fastened to casing 8 by means of pivot bearing 16. Near the opposite end of lever 18 a bearing pin 20 is fixed. Friction sector 22 is loosely fitted on bearing pin 29 by means of a circular aperture 24 which is in the order of several hundredths of an inch greater than the diameter of the bearing pin so that it can move laterally a limited amount with respect to the bearing pin. Also mounted for rotation on hearing pin 29 are friction wheel 26 and gear wheel 28 which are attached to each other so that they rotate on pin 20 as a unit with a fairly close fit, much closer than that of sector 22. A friction stop pin 29 is fixed to the top of easing 8 so that when lever 18 is pressed to the right, which is its normal condition, friction wheel 26 is held against rotation by its engagement with stop pin 29. A spring link 39 is pivotally pinned to lever 18 at point 32, and is guided by guide pins 34 and 36 which permit only substantially axial motion of the line. The end 37 of spring link 30 is held in an annular groove 39 of stem 4, so that when the stem is pushed toward the timepiece in the normal running position, the top of lever 18 is pressed toward the right in Figs. 1 and 2, and frictional wheel 26 is urged against friction stop pin 29 by the resilience of the bent end of spring link 30, which is preferably made of spring steel. Stem 4 is held in the position shown by a conventional detent, shown as a ball 38 urged by spring 40 into an annular depression 42a in stem 4. When the stem is pulled out into the hand setting position, in which rotation of the stem sets the hands of the timepiece, ball 38 seats in depression '42, and the opposite edge of annular channel 39 now urges end 37 of spring link 30 toward the left. As a result, lever 18 is now also urged toward the left to move friction wheel 26 out of frictional engagement with friction stop 29 and into engagement with sector 22 and friction wheel 43 which is fixed to minute shaft 10 and rotates therewith. Time shaft 10 is connected to the motor of timepiece 2 through the conventional friction clutch (not shown) so that as the hands are moved by rotation of stem 4 to set them to the desired position, shaft 10 also rotates. Sector 22 is normally biased in the position shown in Fig. 3 against rotation by fiat spring 44 fixed to the sector as shown in Fig. 3 and passing loosely between guide pins 46, so that a limited angular motion of sector 22 about bearing pin 20 is permitted. Stop pin 48 fixed to lever 18 (Fig. 3) prevents the sector 22 from rotating more than, for example, 45 in either direction. Such rotation of sector 22 will occur when shaft 10 and friction Wheel 43 rotate as the hands are being set.

The action of the above mechanism will now be explained. Assuming, for example, that the timepiece is running fast and has gained five minutes and the operator therefore wishes to set the hands back five minutes so that they read the correct time, he will first pull stem 4 out into the hand setting position, as is conventional in modern watch construction. This presses lever 18 to the left. It will be understood that the clearance between the upright arcuate flange of friction sector 22 and friction Wheels 43 and 26 is made very small, in the order of a few thousandths of an inch, and definitely less than the amount of play between bearing pin 20 and the aperture through friction sector 22. Therefore, when lever 13 moves to the left, friction wheel 26 presses the arcuate flange against friction wheel 43, so that the arcuate flange is, in effect, pinched between friction wheels 26 and 43. A constant pressure is exerted because of the resilience of spring link 30 which is now urged by the right-end side of annular channel 39 toward the left. Stern 4 is now rotated until hand 6 moves backwards five minutes from its original position, in order to accomplish the desired correct setting. Friction wheel 43 also moves by the same amount and carries friction flange 22 and friction wheel 26 in the opposite direction of rotation, that is, wheel 43 moves counterclockwise and friction wheel 26 moves clockwise by a corresponding amount. Gear wheel 28 which is fastened to the friction wheel 26, moves therewith, and through associated gear 14, moves the regulator shaft by a corresponding amount.

The regulator shaft 12 is thus moved counter-clockwise, Which is assumed to be the correct direction to slow down the running rate of the timepiece. When stem 4 is pushed back in the normal running position, arcuate sector 22 is disengaged from friction wheel 43, and as it is loose on pin 24 the action of spring 44 restores it to its normal position without affecting friction wheel 26, which is now held by stop pin 29, and is in any event out of frictional engagement with sector 22, due to the loose play of the sector on pin 20. The mechanism is therefore now ready for another rate changing operation if the amount of correction achieved by the above process should prove to be not sufficient. This would normally be done a day or two later by the user, and would continue until the timepiece has been corrected to the proper running rate.

Assuming that the user of the timepiece had permitted the hands to gain fifteen minutes instead of five, as in the above case. The action in this case would be the same as before when the hands are being set, except that only the first five minutes of rearward motion of minute hand 6 would produce any rotation of gear 28, due to the fact that stop pin 48 limits the motion of sector 22 toan amount corresponding to, for example, five minutes setting of the hands in either direction. The additional movement of hand 6 beyond this five minute range merely causes friction wheel 13 to slip on sector 22 and accomplishes no other result. The maximum correction which can be achieved in any on time preferably represents only a few seconds change in the running rate, substantially in the order of the daily error of the timepiece, so that the last correction made in this manner leaves the timepiece running at substantially its best running rate, and as correctly as possible. If corrections are made when the timepiece gains or loses less than five minutes, the rate change will, of course, be smaller, but the accumulative effect of successive corrections will still ultimately be the same.

Fig. 4 shows a modification of the arrangement of Figs. 1-3. In the arrangement of Figs. 1-3, if the user, when setting the hands of the timepiece, overshoots the desired setting, as sometimes happens, and then comes back to the desired setting and if the desired change in setting was a maximum change, that is, sufiicient for stop 43 to engage the sector, then the overshoot will cause sector 22 to move back from its maximum position to some intermediate position depending on the amount of overshoot. This means that the maximum correction will not be made at a time when it should have been made, but instead a smaller correction will be made. If the setting stem 4 is stiff in operation, this can readily occur. To prevent this, according to Fig. 4, the sector 22 is made of an angular extent corresponding to the maximum correctionwithin this range the action is exactly the same as before; if a greater change in setting is made, sector 22' rides off friction wheel 43'. The bias of spring link 30 is made sufficient so that it urges lever 18' still further to the left, so that when it is not restrained by sector 22 bearing against friction wheel 43' as now happens, lever 18 moves up against stop pin 23 to assume the position of Fig. 5. In this position, friction Wheel 26 is held out of engagement with friction wheel 43, so that further rotation of friction wheel 43 has no aifect on the rate regulating system. Thus, even if an overshoot occurs, and the direction of friction Wheel 43 is reversed to bring the hands back from the overshoot position to the desired setting position, no further change occurs in the angular position of friction wheel 26 or of gear wheel 14'.

Gear wheel 14' could be arranged as shown in Fig. 1, and in that case would still be engaged with gear wheel 28', or the amount of motion of lever 18 to the left may, if desired, be great enough for the gear teeth 28' and 14' to be disengaged in this position. As the stem is pushed back to normal running position, lever 18 is moved back to the right, and the teeth of gears 28' and 14 re-engage; as they are still in the position in which they were disengaged, they will readily re-mesh, or they may be pointed for this purpose. However, I prefer in the embodiment of Figs. 4 and 5 to mount gear wheel 14 at right angles to the motion of gear wheel 26 where this is permitted by the position of shaft 12' (or to use an intermediate gear if necessary) so that the gear teeth remain always in mesh.

If the user initially begins to rotate stem 4 in the Wrong direction While setting the hands as sometimes occurs, this will normally do no harm, since he will normally see the error before he has rotated theh ands into the position of Fig. 5, if he is paying any attention to what he is doing.

It will be apparent, of course, that if the hands are set ahead when the timepiece has been losing time, that the correction will be such as to speed up the running rate of the timepiece, and thus achieve the proper correction.

It will be apparent that the embodiments shown are only exemplary and that various modifications can be made in construction and arrangement within the scope of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An automatically regulated timepiece comprising a time-display means; a minute shaft; rate regulating means movable in two directions to respectively increase or lower the running rate of the time-display means; manual setting means for setting the time-display means to any possible position of said time-display means, said manual setting means having two positions, one being a running position in which the manual setting means is disengaged from said time-display means and the other position being a setting position in which the manual setting means is engaged with the time-display means to set same manually; intermediate coupling means between said rate regulating means and said time-display means for connecting the rate regulating means and the time-display means; and operating means operable only in the setting position of said manual setting means to engage the time-display means, the intermediate means, and the rate regulating means for movement in unison in any engaged position of said manual setting means with said time-display means When said manual setting means is in the setting position; and means limiting motion of said intermediate coupling means to an extreme position in either direction to thus limit the maximum correction at each setting; said intermediate coupling means being disengaged from said time-display means and from said regulating means in the running position of the manual setting means and being disengaged from operative connection with said setting means in said extreme position of said intermediate coupling means.

2. The invention according to claim 1, said limiting means including disabling means for operatively disabling the coupling between said time-display means and said regulating means when one of said extreme positions is reached.

3. The invention according to claim 2, and means for restoring said intermediate member to a neutral position upon return of said manual means to its running position.

4. An automatically regulated timepiece comprising a time-display means, a rate regulator movable in two directions to respectively increase or lower the running rate of the time-display means, manual setting means including a rotatable stem movable axially in any rotary position thereof from a normal running position of the timepiece to a display means setting position in which it is engaged with the display means for actuation thereof to set the display means to a desired position; operating means including a rotary drive means actuated by the axial movement of said stem to the setting position into operative coupling with said display means for rotation therewith as the display means is being set, said rotary drive means being constructed and arranged to limit the rotational movement of said rotary drive means to a small predetermined maximum angular movement corresponding to an extreme position in either direction, and rate regulator means actuated by rotation of said rotary drive means to change the running rate of the timepiece.

5. The invention according to claim 4, wherein said operating means is operable for disengaging said rotary drive means from said operative engagement with said display means in said extreme position and to hold said rotary drive means in either said extreme position.

6. An automatically regulated timepiece having a timedisplay element, a time shaft means to actuate the timedisplay element, a rate regulator means movable in two directions to respectively increase or lower the running rate of the time-display element, a rotable stem movable axially from a normal running position to a display element setting position in any rotary position of said stem, friction means actuated by said stem in the display element setting position into frictional engagement with said time shaft means for rotation thereby as the time-display element is being set, means for limiting the rotational movement of said frictional means to a small predetermined angular movement, said rate regulator means being actuated by said rotation of said frictional means to change the running rate of the timepiece.

7. The invention according to claim 6, said frictional means including an arcuate flanged element, means biasing said element toward a normal angular position, said element being displaceable from this position by rotation of the time shaft when it is frictionally engaged therewith, a friction wheel normally disengaged from said arcuate flanged element but engaged therewith when said stem is in the hand setting position, and means for transmitting angular motion of said friction wheel to said rate regulator means.

8. An automatically regulated timepiece comprising a display element time shaft, a display element rotatable in fixed relation with the display element time shaft, a rate regulator angularly movable in two directions to respectively increase or lower the running rate of the display element, a display element setting stem movable from a normal position to a setting position in which rotation of said stem causes setting of the display element to any desired position, a spring link movable from a normal position to a setting position by movement of said stem, a friction wheel mounted on said display element shaft for' rotation therewith, a bearing pin mounted on said spring link, a friction sector having an arcuate friction flange loosely mounted on said bearing pin, a friction wheel snugly mounted on said bearing pin for rotation thereon and having a pinion gear coaxial therewith and attached thereto, spring means for biasing said friction sector toward a normal angular position, means for transmitting motion of said spring link to said bearing pin to engage said second friction wheel with said first friction wheel through said friction sector flange, whereby motion of said first friction wheel is transmitted to said second friction wheel through said flange against the bias of said spring, stop means for limiting angular motion of said friction sector, a driven gear on said rate regulator and continually engaged with said pinion gear to be driven thereby as said second friction wheel is angularly displaced.

9. In a clock mechanism, a hand setting mechanism including a member mounted for translatory and rotary movement, a running rate regulator having adjusting means, a driving connection for transmitting the rotary movement of said member to said regulator adjusting means, said driving connection being rendered operative by the translatory movement of the first-mentioned member and rendered inoperative after a predetermined rotary movement of said member to transmit any further rotary movement of said member, in either direction, to said regulator adjusting means.

10. A clock mechanism as claimed in claim 9, wherein the driving connection includes an intermediate member which is rendered inoperative after said predetermined rotary movement.

11. In a timepiece having time indicating means and mechanism for driving same, the time indicating means comprising a member rotatable independently of the driving mechanism to permit setting in any rotary position of said member, a rate regulator, a rotatable member for adjusting the regulator, intermediate driving means for transmitting rotary movement of the time indicating means to the rate regulator during setting, said intermediate driving means comprising a member manually movable into and out of driving connection with at least one of said rotating members and movable out of driving connection by the rotation of one of said members through a predetermined are.

12. A timepiece as claimed in claim 11, wherein the manually movable member is movable out of driving connection by its own rotation through a predetermined are.

13. -An automatically regulated timepiece comprising a time-display means, a minute shaft; rate regulating means movable in two directions to respectively increase or lower the running rate of the time-display means; manual setting means for setting the time-display means to any possible position of said timedisplay means, said manual setting means having two positions, one being a running position in which the manual setting means is disengaged from said time-display means and the other position being a setting position in which the manual setting means is engaged with the time-display means to set same manually; intermediate coupling means between said rate regulating means and said time-display means for connecting the rate regulating means and the time-display means; and operating means operable only in the setting position of said manual setting means to engage the timedisplay means, the intermediate means and the rate regulating means for movement in unison in any engaged position of said manual setting means with said time-display means when said manual setting means is in the setting position; and means limiting motion of said intermediate coupling means to an extreme position in either direction to thus limit the maximum correction at each setting; said intermediate coupling means being disengaged from said time-display means and from said regulating means in the running position of the manual setting means and being out of operative connection with said setting means in said extreme position of said intermediate coupling means.

14. A time-keeping device comprising time indicating means, means for setting said time indicating means, regulating mechanism for adjusting the running speed of said device, means engaged by said setting means when "7 said setting means is in its setting posit-ion for shifting said regulating mechanism in proportion to the movement of said setting'means below a predetermined'maximum amount, and means for allowing said means for shifting said regulating mechanism to change its relative position with respect to said setting means and become operatively disengaged from said setting means when movement of mined maximum amount.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS I-Ioldman May 22, 1951 Rabinow Oct.r28, 1958 

